Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-07-01

GENERAL ALBERT PIKE.
$50 feet on Third street, and yet having g
depth of only 80 feet a small garden
extends around it, enclosed Oy an irCu
rallied fence, and the edge of the pave
ment fronting e is lined with beautiful
row CT well grown maple trees. Over the
entrance, which is reached by flight OF
gray stone steps, is g sentence il the
Samaritan language, which not one msn IN
4 thousand who might pass could read.
1t is written IN large giIded letters, cut
deep into q marble slab and glintiuE
brightly IN the rays of the sun which
makes . veriiable hot house Of Washing
ton at this season Of the yesr.
Literally translated, thaee hiercglyphics
mean "HOlY House OF the Temple"
To the Tight OF the door gs you enter is
the office Of Secretary Weber # the su-
preme council, who tells you that Gen
eral Pike is in his room on The second
floor. This is reached by wide, angular
winding staircase with landing half way
up. The landing is not in itself notice
able, but there is ali oId-fashioned clock
on it whose apparent antiquity would sr-
rest the attention of anybody. 1t stands
ten feet high and is incased in q black
walnut frame, and beside it is a written
history of the clock. 1t was brought TO
this country ia 1853 by John Harris, who
came over 10 the New World with his
friend, William Penn. 1t was presented
to the Scottish Rite Temple by John
Harris, the last living representative of
the sturdy pioneer. 1888. Over two
hundred years 0gol InVoluutarily your
mind dWells on the vast changes that
have teken place in that time. The free
dom Of religious thought, the birth of
the most glorious country under the sun,
the printing press, steam, the telegraph,
the knelI OF slavery, the youth and age
and death CT six generations Of men.
Two centuries. SEG that old clock has
seen it all; and if you were to spend
your life counting you could not count
the number CT times il has licked. II
man only had the vitality Of this old
monitor. Bah. it makes me cynical.
Let US ascend.
General albert Pike is sitting at his
desk, lighting q small, Enthusiastically gilded
pipe ss we enter, and Il ever there was
grand looking old man he is one. Tall
GDd robust, with the grace of youth and
tie dignity Of seVenty-seven years; eX-
pressive LTOWn eyes, which have never
looked through glasses, and which are as
bright as g child's. 1t is G warm day,
and our host has on neither coat nor vest
to hide the wide expanse of the snowy
whiteress OF his shirt. And over the
collar Of this, like great name, falls his
wealth OF silverv hair, half way down to
his waist end as thick as a girls.
"Ha, ha," the General laughs pleas
lily as l alIude TO it. ga lady came in
- -. r, day and before l knew what
go 'iiz he had cut off lock with
1890 . IT she had brought for
pair OF SCISSORS y End no Io,,,,l1g
the express purBa. T Anu 80 NC iauSn'
aga SIS if he appreciate, iyl 1''-''' IL
terested compliment ~ uo
General Pixies study, in which : :Dl[,
than half Of his life is spent, is q plafS
furnished square room, with northern
and western exposure. Two desks,
lounge. four or FIVE chairs, q bookcase
and oookrzck complete the furniture.
The general is never alone in this room,
Tor there are nearly hundred birds in it
and their music never ceases while day
light lasts. They are of slmost every
Kind and description. Blue-birds, black
birds, canaTies, robins. thrushes, sWal-
lows, mocking birds, and doz-
ems Of other varieties, some
times over twenty in cage.
After his birds, the favorite hobby of
General Pike is his pipe collection, which
is the most beautiful l have ever seen.
He has Oeen presented with half dozen
merschaums that are real works of art,
and fine art 81 that. One of them took /.
the prize at the Paris national fair for
Icing the largest meerschaum in the !
world aud enotheT for being the most /
beautiful: tie former mas o stem over 8
JsTd long end is too heavy TO lift com .
forteoly: the latter, which was voted to /
hin ct the Paris far, held just after the
+ TsDco- German vat, cost 1000 francs. lis
richly carved sid orns meuted with silver
designs made from German end Swiss
dollars. The General has smoked all of
them, but MS favOrItc is the little pipe he
WAS smoking when [ entered, and some
o. the others are rather dusty nIps
'nsme," lie says IS he replaces them;
''pH have every one Of them cleaned to.
L said that my distinguished host
spends over half Of his life in the room
where we now are, and so he does, but it
IS not spent in idleness. Most of his
line is given to the translation of the
Sanskrit books of Veda, and seventeen
1olumes OF the imperieheble thoughts OF
ne mighty seers of old have been
translated by this student, from the laa-f
suage OF the time when the east wac
7oung and Kali had not bIeathed UPON
he hearth stones of her children. These
seventeen volumes of a thou. sasages
zach are not printed, but the